Like Broken Glass
by BigTimeLive
Summary: Set After Season 2: Gene's life is plain guilt. He can never hide from it, it always finds him. He misses his old life...especially her. Now he has the chance to save her life, but nothing is never that easy. GenexPepper and slight TonyxPepper! Oneshot.


YESS. I FINALLY WRITE MY GENE STORY ASDFGHJKL;

I've been wanting to write this for a while, and man IM SO HAPPY ABOUT IT.

Gene is probably my favorite fictional character EVER. I love him more then…Danny…I'm sorry, Danny.

It's probably because I love character development but Gene is also the first and only fictional character I've ever cried over.

And I love him.

So there's that too.

Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man nor any other characters. They are owned by Marvel. If I did own Marvel, There would be a love triangle between Gene and Pepper and Tony.

BTW, Extra side note. I ship TonyxPepper as an OTP. For life. Ship it so hard. But I also have some feels for GenexPepper… depending on how it's portrayed.

…

Gene Kahn didn't feel anything anymore, except for guilt.

He couldn't get himself to feel anything else, only guilt. Plain and simple, guilt.

It consumed him like a wave to a small raft in a treacherous storm. It swallowed him whole and kept him broken.

He had soon learned that it was something you couldn't escape; it was like an empty abyss.

Gene sighed and clutched the necklace that the rings hung from. Sometimes, when he was lonely, he thought about the good times. The times when he had friends.

When he had a decent life.

A good life.

But that was over now, all of it. If he dared tried to talk to any of them… He didn't even want to think about what Stark would say or do.

What about Pepper? What would she do? Pepper hadn't at first been there, but once she came around, she was Gene's best friend. So maybe he might of harbored romantic feelings for her, it's not like she felt that way…for him. She only felt that for _Tony._

So now Gene was here, alone. After the battle for Earth, he had decided that his destiny wasn't to rule to the world, but to _protect _it. Maybe it was a sappy goal, but it was his.

He hadn't been sure where to go, where do you go when you want to save the world? He questioned himself on this for a long time before deciding.

Deciding that he was now a nomad.

He roamed the Earth, never staying in one place too long. He made sure that everyone stayed alive and well.

And yes, he intended on visiting New York soon.

Not that he didn't. He did.

From time to time he would visit his old home. He would "spy" on his old…friends. Mostly Pepper, he liked to watch her walk to school. She normally didn't walk with Stark or Rhodes in the morning.

Each time, he considered talking to her… or at least making her aware of her presence.

But he never did.

Pepper Potts knew. She somehow knew that Gene was watching her; she could feel it. She didn't dare tell Tony or Rhodey.

It's not like Gene was bothering her; he was quiet. He never said anything or made himself known. She sometimes wondered if he actually was there or she was just imagining it.

She could feel him though. She could feel his eyes following her. She just…knew.

* * *

Gene paced back and forth. '_Pepper is in danger! Why aren't you going to save her?' _Everything inside him screamed.

He had on the Mandarin armor, and was hiding in the shadows of an alley as civilians clumsily fled the streets in terror.

The Tomorrow Academy was surrounded by Maggia. The Mandarin winced at the sight of them. He knew that Stark would be up in the sky in a few minutes taking them out, but Mandarin was getting a bad vibe from the scene.

**BOOM.**

The Mandarin didn't hesitate as he quickly flew into the air to see what had made such a noise.

His heart sank.

Part of the school was in flames. _Part of the school was in flames._ He quickly snapped himself from the trance he was in, because he needed to know where Pepper was.

He didn't waste time by flying, he teleported. Students were filing out of the school as quickly as possible, forgetting everything they had ever learned about fire drills.

Of course then they realized that Maggai were everywhere. Nobody knew what to do. Police sirens blared and officers began trying to hold back Maggai members so the students could safely get away.

But something caught The Mandarin's eye. Rhodey was running out of the building yelling into a phone.

"I'm going to get the War Machine armor!...I don't know where she is! I thought you had her!...I'm going to hold back the Maggi, you just find Pepper!" He pulled the phone away from his ear and thrust it into his pocket.

'_Rhodes is going to the armory. Stark is looking for Pepper…' _A sudden realizationhit Gene.

They couldn't find Pepper.

She was inside a burning building.

Alone.

The Mandarin pulled the ring off and didn't take the time to put it back around his neck, he just ran into the school.

Smoke loomed around him, fogging his vision. His lungs were being to burn. He didn't care.

Gene ran, trying to remember what class Pepper should have been in at this time. "Pepper! Stark!' he yelled quickly before pushing himself to the ground so he could breathe.

"Pepper!" a series of coughing. "I'm coming! Please be okay," a familiar voice approached where Gene was on the ground.

"Sta-"cough. "Stark?"

"Gene? What are you doing here? I don't have time for this, get out before I kill you first."

"Stark, I'm here for Pepper. It'll be easier for me to get her," he held up his teleportation ring. "Where is she?"

Tony hesitated. "She should be in the Girl's Locker Room. I swear Gene, if you hurt her…" he left the rest to Gene's imagination.

"Never." And with that Gene slipped on the ring and teleported.

His eyes were watery and his lungs were screaming, but he had to find her. Gene's heart pounded. '_What if…What if I can't find her… No, stop thinking like that.' _

Gene ran into the locker room and quickly spun around looking for the girl.

And he found her. He took off his ring and quickly made his way to her.

Pepper was as close to unconsciousness as you could be without being unconscious. "Pepper!" Gene's voice was a barely a whisper.

The boy quickly picked the girl off the floor and held her bridal style.

She leaned into him and began to mummer something. "Tony…" it wad faint, but Gene heard it.

And it snapped him. His heart felt like it had been ripped out of his chest for eighty-billionth time and was now being fed through a paper shredder.

No, it was worse then that. The girl who had been his only friend, who had held his heart and didn't even know it, the only person in the world he trusted… she believed that someone else was playing her hero.

And his heart shattered like broken glass. The edges of his broken heart felt as if they were trying to penetrate his eternal organs to kill him.

He hated himself for acting delicate.

That was the last unbroken piece of soul Gene had left. He slipped the rings on and found Stark, who happily rejoiced at the sight of the girl.

Gene put her in Tony's arms and glanced down at her. He took off the rings for just a moment, just so he could look at her as Gene Kahn one last time.

Gene tried to regain his breath as he stroked her face and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Tony flinched, he didn't approve.

"Thank you Gene. Now go." He grunted.

"You have something amazing, Stark. You have a life, don't take advantage of it." he snapped right before teleporting away.

Teleporting to nothing.

Nothing but guilt.

…

Not my best, I'm too emotional to write Gene fics.

More fics to come?

Yes. Most likely.

And MORE WHITE TIGER WOOHOO.

OH And make sure to go and check out my GenexPepper videos on Youtube!

(Heh. A little advertising doesn't hurt.)


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